On Saturday 6th April 2024 myself and Tom got married by the river Etive in Scotland. In the middle of storm Kathleen and in the company of three of our closest friends, we became Mr and Mrs Clare. It was a crazy and wild day but it was the perfect wedding day for us. I wanted to share our wedding day with our wider friends through here so please read on and enjoy my account of our special day!
The river Dee is an absolute UK white water kayaking classic! The Dee is a North Wales river that flows all year round thanks to the fact it has water released into it. It is so good that some brilliant local paddlers decided that they wanted to organise a festival on the Dee and so was born Dee Fest! Dee Fest this year was held on the 13-14th April and it was brilliant! So here is a little account of Dee Fest 2024.
Exactly one year ago I wrote an article explaining why I had been absent from the kayaking scene. Poor health meant I couldn’t be my normal active and kayaking obsessed self for most of 2023 which impacted on both my fitness and happiness. Roll on a year later and 2024 so far has been just wonderful! I am in a much better place and whilst the people I see regularly will know this, I thought it was worth an update on here too. I’m overwhelmingly happy at the moment and I am in a good place with my kayaking because of it. So here is a little life update for you!
A year ago I wrote an article sharing tips to support new paddlers and help them to fall in love with white water kayaking. Following this article, I had a number of people reach out to me to ask if I had any specific tips for helping to introduce children to kayaking. As I am not a parent myself, I reached out to the wonderful Chris Eastabrook and Dan Wilkinson who have kindly shared some of their expert tips with me. Both Chris and Dan are incredibly talented paddlers, coaches and also parents. This article will share their top tips for sharing the love of paddling with children. Enjoy!
Following a trilogy of articles I recently wrote about my favourite white water rivers to paddle in England, Wales and Scotland, I was left thinking about what the best rivers to paddle in other countries would be. I recently took an Irish friend (the lovely Alex McClure) paddling for her first ever trip to the river Tees. Whilst paddling we got chatting about rivers in Ireland and I thought it would be lovely to do a following blog article on awesome white water rivers in Ireland.
Alex kindly put me in touch with another friend of hers – Catherine Mahon. Catherine seems to be one of the most enthusiastic paddlers in Ireland and was very happy to share her favourite rivers with me. She kindly agreed to let me then share those with you all through this article.
Welcome to the third article in my little series on my favourite UK white water rivers to paddle! In my previous articles, I discussed my favourite English and Welsh rivers and this article is going to focus on my favourite white water rivers in Scotland.
I have nowhere near the same number of paddling days in Scotland as I do in England and Wales and consequently do not have the range of experience to draw from. I have however very much enjoyed every kayaking trip I’ve had to Scotland and there are a few rivers which I would strongly recommend paddling! As always, please do leave a comment to share your favourite Scottish rivers.
Welcome to the second article in my little series on my favourite UK white water rivers to paddle! My last article was about my favourite English rivers and this article is going to focus on my favourite white water rivers in Wales. Enjoy!
I often get asked the question – what are your favourite UK rivers to paddle? It is always a difficult one to answer! Partly because there are so many rivers well worth paddling across the UK and each have very different characteristics which make them enjoyable. I have put together a little series of articles looking at my favourite English, Welsh and Scottish rivers. As a Nottingham girl, I thought I would start with the English rivers!
It’s that time of year again where the days of indulgence are dwindling and people look to celebrate the new year and the ‘new me’ that comes with it. Setting new years resolutions is a common habit that many of us follow but few of us follow through. Those first few weeks of January are full of optimism, determination and a desire to achieve those new year goals. So why is it that so many of those goals will remain unachieved and new habits forgotten by the end of the year?
This article aims to summarise an effective way to set kayaking specific new year’s resolutions. If you read through to the end, I have also shared one of my own goals with you too.
Somehow I’ve got myself into the habit of reflecting on my paddling every new year and with just a week left of 2023, the time has come to reflect once more! I find the process of doing so strangely therapeutic as well as helping me to set goals for the coming year. This article is definitely more for me to organise my own thoughts but if you fancy reading my annual paddling reflections – please do go on!